Nearly
a hundred Mongols and Uyghurs from northern European countries
marked International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2003 in
front of the Chinese Embassy to Sweden in Stockholm to
demonstrate against the Chinese government. The demonstration
started at noon and ended at 3:00 pm. Protestors held high the
dark-blue flag of the Inner Mongolian People’s Party, light-blue
flag of Eastern Turkistan and banners of “Release All Political
Prisoners”, “Free Inner Mongolia”, “Release Hada”, “Return My
Grassland”, and shouted loudly the slogans of “we want
independence!”, “we want freedom!”, “China out of Inner
Mongolia!”, “independence for Inner Mongolia!”, “free Eastern
Turkistan!”, “release Rebiya!”.

The protestors
condemned the Chinese government’s increasingly heavy handed
pressure and threats of detention and imprisonment against those
Mongol, Uyghur and Tibetan activists who struggle for freedom
and human rights. They also protested the Chinese Government’s
ongoing policies of cultural assimilation and Han Chinese
immigration into the minority regions of Inner Mongolia, Eastern Turkistan and Tibet.
Protestors expressed their revulsion of the Chinese government’s
economic policy plundering the natural resources and destroying
the eco-system of the minority regions. In particular, the
protestors from Inner Mongolia emphasized that the authorities
have not only deprived the basic human rights of the Mongols but
also have destroyed the Inner Mongolian grassland eco-system
which forms the basis for the Mongols’ traditional economy.
Protestors distributed leaflets condemning the Chinese
government’s human rights violations, naming the Chinese
Communist Party as the largest terrorist organization in the
world because they are abusing a quarter of the world’s
population including the Mongols, Uyghurs, and Tibetans.

At 3:00 pm,
protestors presented an open letter to the Chinese Embassy,
requesting the Chinese government to comply with the United
Nations human rights treaties and conventions and
unconditionally release two political prisoners in conscience,
Mr. Hada and Ms. Rebiya.